TC West Boys Clinch Alpine Skiing State Title; Central Girls Finish Second, West Girls and Central Boys Third

The Traverse City West Senior High School boys alpine skiing team outpaced defending champions Marquette on Monday to win a Division 1 state championship. The win marks the school’s fourth state title in boys downhill skiing, and the first since 2023. The championship tournament, held at Boyne Mountain, also saw top-three finishes for West and Central’s girls teams and Central’s boys squad, as well as individual state titles or runner-up finishes for multiple area skiers.

Alpine ski tournaments consist of two events – the slalom and the giant slalom – with the top four skiers from each school scoring for their team. As The Ticker reported last week, the Titan teams have significant depth this season thanks in part to the Lewandowski family, which has four quadruplets who all ski competitively.

On the boys side, Cam, Dane, and Brock Lewandowski finished second, third, and fourth, respectively, in the slalom, with West’s fourth skier, Grady Ellis, finishing seventh. Those performances gave the Titans a five-point edge over Marquette coming out of the slalom. In the giant slalom, Dane and Cam finished second and fourth, respectively, with West’s Jack Plummer (fifth) and Ellis (17th) filling out the two remaining scoring slots for the team. Those performances proved powerful enough to edge out Marquette by three points in the giant slalom, good for an overall eight-point victory for Traverse City West. Central’s boys finished third.

On the girls side, Traverse City Central’s Avery Taggart won an individual state title in the giant slalom to lead the Trojans to a runner-up finish, just six points behind Marquette’s title-winning team. Taggart also finished fourth in the slalom, and her teammate, Quinn Gerber, ended the day as state runner-up in both the slalom and the giant slalom. For West, Summer Lewandowski, the fourth of the Quads, led the Titans in the slalom with a sixth-place finish, and then placed seventh in the giant slalom. West's Sarah Shapiro led the way for the Titans in the giant slalom, finishing fifth.